Better Know a Non-Rev! Gopher Soccer 2014 Season Preview

Hello Gopher Nation, Stephan Goldbert here,  welcome to part one of my ongoing twenty part series…..BETTER KNOW A NON-REV!

via grfx.cstv.com

Tonight we attempt to cash in on the recent World What-do-ee-do in Brazil. I believe it was called Sokar, I’m not sure, I only speak Minnesotan. With that said, we will hand it off to our only soccer correspondent, Goalie Gopher, reporting live or tape-delayed, of even possibly from the future in the small wilderness that is Falcon Heights………..Goalie, that doesn’t sound right? Goldy, take it away

Introduction

Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium - Falcon Heights, Minnesota - Rolf A. R. Addy

The Women’s Soccer Team is one of 23 DI sports at the U of M. They have a long tradition of some period of time, and in that brief period of time they were B1G Champs three times, 1995, 1997, & 2008. Per the one source of truth (I’m referring to Wikipedia of course) three alumni of note are Mikki Denney Wright (Coach), Jennifer McElmury, and Samuel Winter. The Women's Soccer team is one of the few Gopher teams that actually have their home field over at the St. Paul campus at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. This stadium was paid for with a $900K gift from Deborah Olson (to honor her mother) and $1.2M from the state (give yourselves a pat on the back) which provides an nice atmosphere for games with great sight-lines (sun is to your back). Traditions at the game include the following:

• Everyone stomping their feet to make the bleachers rattle for Gopher Conner Kicks
• Singing Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline right before the second half (PA comes into the bleachers with his microphone and gets fans, especially kids to sing)
• Performing the Minnesota chant after Minnesota scores (M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, Minnesota!, Minnesota! Goooooooo GOPHERS! (Rah!)

The Staff

Head Coach Stefanie Golan returns for her third year after spending five years as coach at the US Military Academy (West Point). Coach Golan's #2 is Associate Head Coach Krystle Seidel who is in her sixth year with the program and was promoted from Defensive Coach. Coach Seidel was a former star for the Gophers, especially in 2008 when the Gophers had 17 shutouts, 5th in the nation. She joined the coaching staff right after her senior season. Coach Seidel was named to the NSCAA 30 Under 30 Program earlier this year, 1 of 15 women awarded this honor.The remainder of the Gopher Soccer staff as listed on Gophersports.com are:

• Denna Waintraub Stafford - Assistant Coach
• Elle Dykema - Undergraduate Student Assistant
• MacKenzie Misel - Volunteer Assistant Coach
• Mary Jo Brandt - Principal Administrative Specialist
• Tam Strahota - Director of Soccer Operations

In 2013 the Gophers finished with an overall 11-8-2 record (not including a win in the exhibition game) with wins over Michigan (then #17), Penn State (#7 at the time), Wisconsin, and Purdue. Unfortunately, the Gophers lost in their first games for both the Big Ten Tournament (Nebraska) and the NCAA Tournament (Texas Tech, why?) in pretty big fashion. This is nearly the same as 2012 (11-7-2, did not make the NCAA Tournament but 4th in B1G) but better than 2011 (9-10-2). In the B1G, this was only good for 9^th place (4-5-2). One bright spot from last year was our goalie Tarah Hobbs, who led the B1G in saves (122) as a Freshman and was the first Gopher to be named B1G Goalkeeper of the Year. See her bio from Gophersports below:

• Hobbs appeared in 18 games during her first season with the Golden Gophers
• Led the Big Ten in saves with 122
• Named the 2013 Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year (first Gopher to ever receive the conference honor)
• Ended the year with a save percentage of .836
• Posted 4 conference shutouts
• Named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week twice (October 7 and October 28)
• Named Co-Freshman of the Week on October 7, 2013
• Big Ten Player of the Week October 28, 2013
• Broke the standing record for saves in a single match in October 2013 against Iowa (16)
• All-Big Ten First Team
• Big Ten All-Freshman Team
• NCAA Division I Women's All-Great Lakes Region Second Team by the NSCAA
• CS360 National Primetime Player of the Week on October 8, 2013
• CS360 Primetime Performers Weekly Honor Roll during the week of September 30-October 6, 2013
• TopDrawerSoccer.Com's Top 100 Freshmen postseason list (22)
• TopDrawerSoccer.Com's Freshman Best XI Second Team
• Hobbs was invited to two U20 National Team camps in preparation for the World Championships

Impressive no? If you said no, get out now....after you've finished the article.

This Year

You may be sick of hearing this, but the Gophers are a young team. On the squad are 9 Frosh, 7 Sophomores, 5 Juniors (1 redshirt), and only 4 seniors (all 4 are featured on the 2014 Schedule poster, couldn't find a link); that's young. I'm not sure how this compared to last year as I couldn't find a 2013 roster. Here is the full 2014 roster.

The Gophers started out this season with a dominating exhibition game win against the University of North Dakota which had free admission (don't say I didn't tell you). This was a truly dominating win, much more so than the final score showed, but of course we are B1G and UND is Big Sky. Sophomore Simone Kolander scored two goals while Sophomore Josee Stiever scored one goal and had two assists. In total, the Gophers had 13 corner kicks and 29 shots on goal vs 0 and 1 for UND. The Gophers also had two of their shots hit the inside of the post but bounce out. To be honest, I thought the UND keepers did a good job, its just that they where called on to do their job way too often. See the full stats here.

via scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net

2014 (starts in earnest on Friday night (8/22/2014) at 6 pm (Watch Live) on the road against Stetson (DeLand, Fla) ( followed again by Florida State (8/24/2014) before heading back home for a game against Marquette on 8/29/2014. Check out the remainder of the schedule on Gopher Sports. I suggest you go, you can find free parking if you are willing to walk or take the shuttle and tickets are only $5 ($4 for seniors, kids, students).

The captains this year will be Katie Thyken, Becca Roberts (Sr), Olivia Schultz (Sr), and Haley Helverson (Jr). As Gopherguy05 pointed out, the Gophers are predicted to finish in 11th place in this years B1G due to the addition of Maryland and Rutgers. However, the following Gophers where added to preseason watch lists:

• Tarah Hobbs (Goalkeeper)
• Josee Stiever (Midfielder)
• Katie Thyken (Midfielder)

The Schedule

Date                      Opponent / Event           Location                               Time / Result

08/15/14              vs. North Dakota              ELR Stadium                       W, 3-0 Exhibition Only

08/22/14              at Stetson                           DeLand, Fla.                       6:00 p.m. CT

08/24/14              at Florida State                  Tallahassee, Fla.               12:00 p.m. CT

08/29/14              vs. Marquette                   ELR Stadium                       7:00 p.m. CT

08/31/14              vs. South Dakota St.        ELR Stadium                       1:00 p.m. CT

09/05/14              at Ole Miss                          Oxford, Miss.                     7:00 p.m. CT

09/07/14              vs. Auburn                          Oxford, Miss.                     12:00 p.m. CT

09/12/14              at Michigan                         nn Arbor, Mich.             7:00 p.m. CT

09/14/14              at Michigan State             East Lansing, Mich.          11:00 a.m. CT

09/20/14              vs. Iowa                               ELR Stadium                       7:00 p.m. CT

09/26/14              at Purdue                            West Layfette, Ind.         6:00 p.m. CT

09/28/14              at Indiana                            Bloomington, Ind.            11:00 a.m. CT

10/03/14              vs. Penn State                   ELR Stadium                       7:00 p.m. CT

10/05/14              vs. Ohio State                    ELR Stadium                       1:00 p.m. CT

10/09/14              vs. Nebraska                      ELR Stadium                       7:00 p.m. CT

10/12/14              at Illinois                              Champaign, Ill.                  2:00 p.m. CT

10/18/14              vs. Wisconsin                     ELR Stadium                       7:00 p.m. CT

10/24/14              vs. Maryland                      ELR Stadium                       7:00 p.m. CT

10/26/14              vs. Rutgers                          ELR Stadium                       1:00 p.m. CT

10/31/14              at Northwestern              Chicago, Ill.                         7:00 p.m. CT

2014 Kits (Uniforms)

From the Gopher Soccer Twitter account, here are the 2014 kits.

via pbs.twimg.com

Here are the kits for the goalkeepers (also from the Gopher Twitter page)

via pbs.twimg.com

Links & Stuff

These ladies are pretty good at social media. Several of the coaches and players have active accounts but I'll just list the official team ones. They also have several Youtube videos from previous seasons.

Follow them on Twitter - @gophersoccer

Follow them on Facebook - Golden Gopher Soccer

Follow them on YouTube - 2014 Gopher Soccer Playlist

Official Team Page - Gophersports

BTN Women's Soccer - Webpage

Conclusion

Well there you go, my first article as an official writer. Hope you liked it, let me know if you have any questions in the comments.